Antivirus Center

30 April 2011 Rogue 2 Comments

Antivirus Center or also called as Antivirus Center 2011 is a rogue security application that was developed in a number of variants. These type of malicious program can be obtained automatically by visiting fake security web sites that will download and execute this unwanted program on visitors computer without a knowledge. There are also instances that Antivirus Center virus will be acquired from fake multi-media web sites that will ask its visitors to download a player or codec to be able to view online hosted videos. Users may not know that instead of installing the player it was Antivirus Center that will be loaded on the system.

Some symptoms of this unwanted programs presence are excessive pop-up alerts and warning messages. Browser will be redirected to various unsolicited web pages. It may also block any applications from being executed and declare that the executable file is infected. A prompt to purchase the licensed version of Antivirus Center is expected. After all, this program was created specifically to earn a profit from its fraudulent activities. It is important to remove Antivirus Center immediately when a presence is detected on the computer. Never buy the product and instead download the legitimate and recommended program below this page to completely remove this fake AV program.

Screen Shot Image:

Damage Level: Medium

Systems Affected: Windows 9x, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7

Antivirus Center Removal Procedures

Manual Removal:
1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del on keyboard to stop process associated to “Antivirus Center”. When Windows Task Manager opens, go to Processes Tab and find and end the following process:
(random characters).exe

2. You need to update your installed antivirus application to have the latest database.
3. Thoroughly scan the computer and any detected threats must be removed. If removal is prohibited, it is best to quarantine the infected item. Manually locating and deleting of malicious files should also be performed. Please see files below that are related to Internet Protection Virus.
4. Registry entries created by Internet Protection must also be remove from the Windows system. Please refer below for entries associated to the rogue program. [how to edit registry]
5. Exit registry editor.
6. Get rid of Internet Protection start-up entry by going to Start > Run, type msconfig on the “Open” dialog box. A windows containing System Configuration Utility will be launched. Go to Startup tab and uncheck the following Start-up item(s):
(random characters).exe

7. Click Apply and restart Windows.

“Antivirus Center” Removal Tool:
In order to completely remove the threat, click here to download and run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Sometimes, Trojans will block the downloading and installation of MBAM. If this happens, download it from a clean computer and rename the executable file before executing on the infected machine.

Using Portable SuperAntiSpyware:
To thoroughly remove the virus, it is best to do a separate scan of another security program so that other infected files not detected by anti-virus application can be remove as well. Click here to download and run SAS Portable Scanner.

Technical Details and Additional Information:

Malicious Files Added by Antivirus Center virus:
c:%UserProfile%\Desktop\Antivirus Center.lnk
c:%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temp\(random).exe
c:%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temp\ins1.tmp
c:%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temp\mv2.tmp
c:\Program Files\Internet Protection\
c:\Program Files\Internet Protection\Antivirus Center.dll

Antivirus Center Registry Entries:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “(random).exe”